Ultimate goal of using an RTA?

[ThxOne Premium Member]

Ok, I know an RTA will tell you what your system is doing and will give you a visual on what frequencies you need to boost or cut. But what is the goal? Hear me out...

When music is recorded in the studio the producers will EQ and mix all the music. When it is mastered it will be EQ'd again and level matched among other things. This is all done within specific guidelines and then the producers and masters will adjust to their ears, but the general outcome is one with a specific type of sound curve from 20 - 20Khz. Usually sloping downward from the low end towards the 20Khz range.

So being that the producer and the master have recorded and EQ'd the music a specific way, what do we do when we use the RTA to set OUR systems EQ? Would our goal be a flat (transparent) output at all frequencies? Would this then accurately reproduce the recorded music the way THEY EQ'd it?

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[Lasherž]

So being that the producer and the master have recorded and EQ'd the music a specific way, what do we do when we use the RTA to set OUR systems EQ? Would our goal be a flat (transparent) output at all frequencies? Would this then accurately reproduce the recorded music the way THEY EQ'd it?

Yes, they use the same techniques and so the starting point is a flat curve. They use studio monitor speakers which are designed to be extremely flat with a good DAC. The specific curve of the song is based on the human hearing, they don't even need to listen to it to get extremely close to where they want to be then it's just touch and go from there. Nothing that will disrupt the curve from sounding good to other humans, but the speaker settings themselves are never changed to the monitors so you're hearing it as close to how they intend it when you have the flat response as well.

 

[ThxOne Premium Member]

Whilst doing more research I found out that some RTA's compensate while some do not. Being some will show a flat response of pink noise to adjust to and some will show the actual curve of pink noise to adjust to.

I don't mind either one but to use the actual pink noise curve... wouldn't you have to know how many db's each frequency drops on the way to 20Khz? Like say if the RTA shows 500hz is at 0db and 1000hz is at -5db... I would need to boost it to -2db right? Because pink noise drops 3db every octave?

Like this example:

(40hz +10db) - (80hz +7db) - (160hz +4db) - (320hz +1db) - (640hz -2db) - (1280hz -5db) - (2560hz -8db) - (5120hz -11db) - (10,240hz -14db) - (20,480hz - 17db)

This would make the flat pink noise curve then and in theory it should only need minor EQing to compensate for speaker placement and interior space and materials right?

 

[ThxOne Premium Member]

I am curious as I will be buying the mic soon and want to do this right.